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Greeting Cards – Why Do They All Suck?

Oftentimes when I’m looking for a card for someone’s birthday or some other special occasion, I just wind up picking a card that “sucks less.” Such is the sorry state of greeting cards. Way too often, it becomes a contest of finding one passable card in a sea of mediocrity.

Cards aren’t edgy anymore. They don’t have any real humor, or the humor they show is cliched beyond belief. I think I can honestly say I enjoy visiting the dentist more than I enjoy picking out greeting cards. At least at the dentist’s, the nitrous oxide is guaranteed to get a laugh.

A place with somewhat-funny cards is a special find, so when I find one that has decent cards, I tend to mine it to the point where I become paranoid I’m gonna send the same card to the same person twice. As the stock doesn’t change much, it is a real danger. All cards begin to look the same to my glazed and jaded eyes.

How did cards get so bad? Is it that the writers are fresh out of ideas? I mean, they’ve only tried to say “I love you” 58 billion times now. Surely there are a few more ways they haven’t tried yet.

And why do these sucky cards cost more than magazines? It’s a crummy piece of paper with some not-so-witty saying on it, and for this I pay five dollars? Get real!

In frustration with the dull store-bought cards, I’ve taken to making my own cards. They’re much more personal and can sometimes actually be funny. Those are qualities you can’t find anymore in store-bought cards.

  1. Write your own. Saves the time and money. You are probably funnier anyway.

  2. I totally agree… I was just thinking this a few weeks ago. Even the online cards suck now too.

    I especially hate the grandma cards where the only catch to them is that grandma is saying something totally inappropriate. Now that’s fun!

    we should start a line of haiku cards

  3. I love the segments on Conan O’Brien where they come up with spoof greeting cards. It’s an old schtick that Letterman used to do, but it still cracks me up.

    What’s really funny (or sad) is that writing the fake cards took more effort than the real ones did.

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